Hello Miss Jacobs and all of the Kirkland residents who, in late October, encountered the night-time road-closure on 98th Avenue Northeast at the Forbes Creek Bridge near Juanita Beach Park.

Thank you, first of all, for your patience while our contractor retrofitted the Forbes Creek Bridge to withstand earthquakes. As you might have noticed, our contractor was able to complete most of the work without affecting daytime traffic. The project began in July and continued through October.

However, during one critical week of the project, the contractor did have to close 98th Avenue Northeast at the bridge between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. to automotive traffic and to detour that traffic through Northeast 116th Street and Forbes Creek Drive.

To prepare drivers and residents for this, we developed a web page, which we updated regularly. We met and chatted with residents at various city and community planning events. And we mailed project fliers to those living within 1,000 feet of the project site. We recognized that only a few dozen residents live within that proximity of the work site. But we also knew that many, many more use that road every day. So we also sent a series of articles through our list serves and to the media. The Kirkland Reporter and Kirkland Views carried these stories, along with photos.

We mounted a large interpretive sign on the Juanita Bay Causeway. The sign describes the project’s purpose and the road-closure’s anticipated time-frame. On top of this, we placed variable message boards on both ends of the work site in several weeks before we closed the road. The purpose of these message boards was to prepare drivers for the upcoming closure.

Regardless of these efforts, we recognize this information did not reach you — even though you would have been interested in it. That tells me that we can do better. I am always looking for more effective channels and styles to convey relevant information about infrastructure projects to the residents who would benefit from it. If you have any suggestions for how we could more effectively convey project-related information, please give me a call or drop me an email.

Christian Knight, city of Kirkland